The story of the formative years of the Conn company traditionally begins with the recitation of one of several popular versions of a fist fight between the young Charles Gerard Conn and a member of his band, in which Conn's lip is split so badly that he is unable to play his cornet. As a result, he invents a mouthpiece with rubber attached to the rim to help cushion his injury. The earliest known record of this altercation is an article written in 1902 by Ben Gordon Whitehead for the Indianapolis News--some thirty years after the alleged event. Once circulated, the details of the story became legendary, growing, changing, and taking on a life and truth of their own. The real story, as far as it can be determined, begins in Buchanan, Michigan, in December 1871. The town's band leader, 27-year-old Charles Gerard Conn (1844-1931), badly injures his left hand, breaking his forefinger in an accident at the zinc collar-pad factory. Unable to continue practicing his violin, Gerard, as he was known in his youth, focused his attention upon the cornet, an instrument he also played and upon which he became highly proficient. Shortly thereafter, Gerard joined the Haverly Minstrels performing troupe. Just eight months later, an account in the Berrien County Record notes that "a couple adopted citizens of the Erin Isle persuasion came in contact with one of our native citizens of the African descent. Our colored boy backed out till he could back no further, when quick as thought his fist flew into the face of the antagonist, felling him instantly." Whether or not Gerard, of Irish heritage, was himself the recipient of this blow is conjecture. However, based on this newspaper account, as well as other corroborative evidence, it appears that this is the most likely source for the split-lip legend. Conn and his young wife, Catherine, left Buchanan shortly after this incident. They returned to Elkhart, where Gerard spent two years dabbling in several different lines of work, from selling health care products under the tradename "Konn's Kurative Kream" to inventing parts for and selling sewing machines with partner Jake Mish, from plating and engraving silverware to manufacturing and distributing rubber stamps with partner John Rogers. It was this last business venture that led directly to the development of Conn's first musical product. During the fall of 1874, the young entrepreneur invented the elastic-faced or rubber-rimmed mouthpiece, an event documented seven years later in the January 1881 issue of Conn's monthly magazine, Trumpet Notes:
C. G. Conn's first musical product, the elastic-faced or rubber-rimmed mouthpiece. U. S. patents: February 23, 1875 (#160,164) and May 8, 1877 (#190,558). This example is in the collections of National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota. Photograph by Simon R. H. Spicer. © 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.
Possibly aided by the expertise of his former Buchanan boss, Dexter Curtis (inventor of the zinc collar pad for horses), Conn developed a process for vulcanizing rubber to metal. He proceeded to add this new rubber rim to other manufacturers' mouthpieces, using improvised machinery made from parts left over from his sewing machine business. Conn enlarged his business in 1875, after moving out of his small shop at 22 Jackson Street (above Kibbe's Drug Store) to the upper story of McGregger & Sons' old woolen mill (behind the post office). He obtained patents in the United States, England, France, Belgium, and Canada, and began manufacturing his own mouthpieces in a brass foundry set up next door to his shop. Experiments in silver plating culminated in December 1875 with the first silver-plated brass mouthpiece ever produced by Conn.
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